Final Tallman Organ Recital

For this summer season’s last Tallman Tracker Organ Recital, Jared Jacobsen will pay tribute to its roots.

At 12:15 p.m. August 23 in the Hall of Christ, Jacobsen will lead this week’s recital: “An American Organ Songbook.” Since the Tallman Organ was originally intended to be a Baptist church organ, Jacobsen, Chautauqua Institution’s organist and coordinator of worship and sacred music, will pay homage to its origins by playing a series of his favorite church hymns.

The Tallman Organ was originally built for a Baptist church in Nyack, New York. Jacobsen said church officials went to the organ builders in town and said: “Build us something that will help us to help people sing.”

Although his Tallman Recitals don’t typically include a lot of singing, this week will be different. Jacobsen put together a book of church hymns that he thinks are important, and said Chautauquans can expect to do a lot of singing.

“The fun is to make the organ do all kinds of different sounds to highlight the hymns [and] most of them will be familiar,” Jacobsen said. “They’ll be from many different traditions, but I really want to pay tip-of-the hat to the Baptist congregation in Nyack, New York, who gave us this organ in a great leap of faith.”